\vspace*{60mm}
\textbf{\Large Acknowledgments}
\vspace{10mm}

First of all, I would like to thank Cecilia Mascolo, my supervisor: she has been
nurturing and advising me throughout my years at Cambridge and her support and
guidance have been fundamental to shape my research and focus my efforts. 
She was the first to suggest that I apply for a PhD and I cannot overstate how
much that suggestion has changed my life. Then, I thank Vito Latora, who
patiently taught me the joy of doing research when I was still a very young student, and who
encouraged me to pursue bigger goals and study in Cambridge. Third, I want to
thank Mirco Musolesi: his constant mentoring in the first months of my PhD
helped me to improve my research and technical skills.

I have been lucky enough to enjoy many collaborations and to have many co-authors who deserve
my gratitude: Prithwish Basu,  Chlo\"{e} Brown, Andreas Kaltenbrunner, Renaud Lambiotte, Ilias
Leontiadis,  Liam McNamara, Vincenzo Nicosia, Anastasios Noulas, Bence P\'{a}sztor, John Tang,
Yana Volkovich, Murtaza Zafer. I would also like to thank Jon Crowcroft for many interesting
discussions and great insights; I am also indebted to Richard Gibbens and
Timothy Griffin, who have guided my thesis with wisdom and useful suggestions.
Also, I would like to thank the friends I have made in the lab, especially
Tassos, Ilias, Liam, Haris, Andrius, John, Christos, Kiran, Kharsim, Jisun, Narseo,
Bence, Daniele: my life in Cambridge has been enjoyable and fun because of
them and I will always cherish all the great moments we spent working in the
lab or being somewhere else.

A highlight of the recent years is the time I spent during my internship at the
Google office in Z\"{u}rich, where I learnt how to use my scientific curiosity
to build products and services that benefit millions of users all around the
world and where, at the same time, I was allowed to test some of the ideas and
insights contained in this dissertation. A big thanks goes to the entire
YouTube Analytics team and especially to Anders Brodersen, who guided me with
precious personal feedback, and to Mirjam Wattenhofer, who always kept me motivated
during my internship, working side-by-side with me.

While all those who worked with me deserve my utmost gratitude, I am certainly
more indebted to my parents: their sacrifices, their encouragement, their
guidance and their love have supported me throughout my education, enduring the
physical distance existing between us. I thank my sister, Francesca,
always ready to chat with me and soothe my homesickness when I am away from Sicily
and always ready to spend time with me when I am there. I also thank Antonio,
Diletta and Isotta, because they have been like family.

I do not even know how to thank my beloved Violetta. She has been through this PhD
with me, month after month, spending hours with me on Skype, sitting through 
unpolished versions of my talks, reading drafts of my papers, visiting me in
Cambridge and waiting for me in Sicily. She has always believed in me, even when
I did not believe in myself: I know that without her I would not be
writing this. I hope we will remember these years forever, together.



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